ISLAMIC FINANCE IS VIABLE

Zeti Akhtar Aziz, governor of Bank Negara Malaysia, the central bank, took the message of the Islamic finance proposition to the heart of continental Europe when she gave the inaugural global lecture at Goethe University following the opening earlier of the inaugural Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum (OMFIF) in early March 2010 in Frankfurt, Germany. Zeti highlighted three trends in the global financial system which she predicted are set to become significantly more pronounced in the aftermath of this global financial crisis. These include the increasing significance of Asia in the global economy; the extensive international regulatory reforms that is being envisaged by the international community; and finally the rapid growth of Islamic finance and its integration into the international financial system. Today, maintained Zeti, Islamic finance has evolved to become a viable and competitive component of the international financial system.